


Housewarming

by Monstrosibee



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Twoshot, but here we are, didnt mean to make this as gay as i did, first time visiting each others apartment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-22 19:22:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21307301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Monstrosibee/pseuds/Monstrosibee
Summary: A home is a personal thing, and sometimes it can tell a lot about its owner.
Relationships: Orion Pax/Shockwave
Comments: 4
Kudos: 35





	1. Officer Orion Pax

Their feet clicked steadily against the industrial gray hallway floor, one set of steps slightly faster as the stride hurried to keep up with the longer one. By now, the windows only let in the barest glimmer of light as the street lights flickered on, sun just set over horizon hidden by city buildings.

"You'll have to pardon the mess," Orion's characteristic bass echoed off the bare floor and walls as he drew up in front of one of the apartment doors and swiped his hand over the keypad, so fast that Shockwave couldn't even see him type the code. "But I really do need your input on this case, and Springarm and his crew have been insisting I 'get out of the office more.'"

He disappeared across the darkened threshold, almost dropping the carefully stacked datapads under his left arm, and Shockwave followed, picking carefully over the floor so as not to step on any invisible obstacles. "Somehow I don't think this is what they meant, officer." 

The chuckle that sounded in the darkness made the senator's spark warm just the barest hint - he heard it so rarely, even for his best jokes! - and then the lights blinked on, leaving both of them squinting at the sudden brightness. Orion stood at the corner of a hallway, hand on a light switch, battle mask still hiding his lower face despite being in his own home. "I'd have to agree with you, senator. Unfortunately for both them and myself, there's never enough time in the work day to finish what needs to be done, especially when there are murderers out there."

He swept a hand towards a couch that dominated most of the room in which they stood. "Feel free to make yourself comfortable; I have a few things I need to put away before we get started. And again, I'm sorry about the mess." He hesitated, like a petrorabbit unsure if it was being hunted. "I wasn't anticipating any guests today, but surprise cases happen."

"It's no bother, officer. Do what you need to." Shockwave watched his retreating form for a moment as it disappeared down the hallway, then moved forward and around the couch, settling down delicately on the edge. 

It wasn't ACTUALLY messy. True, he could see some dishes in the sink over the counter that separated what appeared to be the den from the dispensary, but other than that, the place was actually unnervingly clean. The comfortable chair that sat against the wall next to the couch was empty save for a pillow, the plain serviceable coffee table empty of anything except for a single datapad that just read "Fauna of the Forgotten Plains" when he clicked it on. 

A single screen hung from the wall opposite him, smaller than Shockwave expected for someone with a job with the kind of status that Orion's boasted. When he twisted around to look at the wall behind him, nothing decorated the walls - no pictures of work friends or awards or certificates. Although, to be honest, he was sure the officer most likely kept all the awards he had earned in that case in his office.

The thought curled the corner of his mouth into a smile, and he settled back into his spot on the couch, this time more comfortably. He wasn't exactly sure what he had expected, but the den at least seemed to perfectly fit officer Orion Pax's straight forward personality, much different than his own cluttered home on the other end of Rodion. The coffee table datapad was probably the funniest of it all - it had clearly been given to him by someone else, mostly one of his officers, in an attempt to make the place feel a bit more like a home.

"Alright, thanks for waiting." He looked up as Orion came back into the room, and to Shockwave's surprise the battle mask was gone. His lower face was bare, showing office a serious mouth and a broad and once broken nose, a scar marring the otherwise plane of perfect metal at the very corner of his lip. A surprising amount of emotion showed with that mouth, and it made it obvious just how much he depended on the mask to hide it all.

Oh dear, was he smitten.

Shockwave reset his vocalizer and sat up a little straighter. "No problem at all. Did you want to go ahead and get started?"

Orion hummed, crossing behind the couch and into the dispensary. "Give me a moment and I'll get us some energon. I actually haven't had any since yesterday now that I think about."

"Of course. Take your time; this is your home." Truthfully he hadn't fueled at all that day either; he could feel his tanks struggling to run on fumes.

"But I did invite you. GIve me a moment...did you want any aluminum flakes in yours?" The cabinets in between them slightly muffled Orion's voice as glasses clinked back and forth. "I think I'm out of mercury or I'd offer you some, but I do have the aluminum."

"That would be lovely, thank you." Shockwave watched the single bit of red torso that he could see between the cabinets and the counter as the officer filled two glasses and stirred in the additives. The hands came into view a moment later, holding a glass in each that they set on the counter, then emptied a silver dust into each from a container just labeled "ALUM" in blocky handwriting. Orion emerged from the dispensary a moment later, setting one of the mismatched glasses on the coffee table in front of Shockwave as he sat in the chair just adjacent to the couch.

"Here you go. Let me know if you want any more of the aluminum - I have plenty." Kicking a leg up over his knee, Orion pulled a set of three datapads from his subspace, fanning them out on the table. "I asked you about this case because I figured you'd know more about the victim that I would, since he's from Nyon and he'd been bouncing back and forth between there and Rodion for months before the murder."

Sipping delicately at his own energon, Shockwave took one of the datapads and squinted down at the profile scrolling across it. "Yes, I could tell you about some of these places he'd been recently. He was definitely up to something, because no one who was actually forged in Nyon visits Helipad's downtown unless they're either trying to pawn something or they WANT all their fingers cut off and then the wounds soldered shut."

Orion hummed, tracing the bottom of his mouth with a thumb to remove a drop of spilled energon. Shockwave stared very hard at the profile. "That's what I've heard. I've never been to Nyon myself, but a lot of the places he was going to seemed a little fishy. Friends said he wasn't the kind to fall in with the wrong crowd, though." 

Shockwave nodded, picking up another datapad to look at the crime scene photos. "Well, whichever crowd he did fall in with was the very wrong kind, because whoever did this to him was very careful about making it as painful as possible. The fingers seem to be the least of what they did."

"Yes." Finishing off the last of his glass, Orion placed it on the coffee table and leaned forward, placing both feet flat on the floor and grabbing the final datapad. "Well, let's get started. We may be at this a while."


	2. Senator Shockwave

Orion hesitated before he knocked, curled hand barely an inch from the bronzed surface of the door. The nameplate DID say 'Senator Shockwave of Nyon' on its ornate face, and the number was the one he had been given, but he was still unsure. Was this really the correct apartment?

His audials buzzed at the way the knock echoed in the empty hall, which had no doors except for the single penthouse door in front of him. The single moment he waited for a reply stretched into what felt like hours internally, but his chronometer told him it was only about 3 seconds when an accented tenor, muffled by the door, answered, "Come in, it's open! Watch out for Chachki!"

Frowning, Orion palmed open the door, squeezing across the threshold of the door that was clearly made for a class of bots shorter than him. "Chachki? What's-?" He felt a soft touch on his shin and looked down at the ferro-cat trying to nose her way around his leg. With a quick hand, he flicked the door closed, trying to delicately nudge the rather round creature back into the apartment and away from the outside hallway. 

She gave him a look that seemed outrageously contemptuous for a fat one eared housepet, then whirled around and stalked off, going slow as though to prove she was above him. 

"Chachki, don't be rude. I don't let you out either." Senator Shockwave appeared from around the corner the ferro-cat had just disappeared behind, looking after her with a comically exaggerated expression of disapproval. When he looked up and at Orion, he grinned, and the broad smile was enough to make the officer's spark rattle a bit in its casing. "Do excuse her officer, she's used to being the one in charge around here. She doesn't like being told no."

It took him a moment to find something to say. "No excuses necessary - it is her home, after all. I wouldn't want to offend what I'm sure is the highest authority here."

To his great delight, Shockwave laughed, a sound that shook in his chest for a moment before it managed to burst from his mouth with more volume than Orion expected. "Oh goodness, be careful. She already seems to think her presence alone pays the rent, I don't think you need to inflate her ego any more than it already is." He gestured with a hand away from the door and front hallway to the corner opposite the one Chachki had just slunk down, and Orion noticed the oil and grease that peppered his chassis in black smudges for the first time. "Do come in, I was just fixing the joints for the window winch, I can wipe down while we speak."

Orion followed him around the corner and into the den, where another ferro-cat lounged on the back of single recliner in a comfortable sprawl. It opened one of its optics as he passed, and Shockwave buried fingers into its scruff for a moment before passing along and towards the counter of the dispensary. "You can pet Chartreuse if you want, but there's about a thirty five percent chance he'll bite. I haven't figured out exactly what his trigger is, but I think it possibly may be the color red. Not sure yet though, so give it a try and scold him if he goes for a taste."

Looking down at the ferro-cat, Orion frowned behind his battle mask. This one was nowhere near as fat as Chachki, but he had a sly look about his bright green optics and scrunched little face. His tail swung back and forth as though timing the decision, and the officer decided to keep his hands behind his back and examine the den instead. 

A single full wall yawned out onto the city through an enormous window, reminding everyone that this was the penthouse of the place even if it wasn't as tall as some of the expensive apartments other senators boasted. The window cast bright morning light on the room in pink and violet hues, illuminating an odd assortment of furniture that seemed...almost out of place. 

The recliner was old, a tear on the back of the chainmail having long since been stitched up. The coffee table was big, a little ridiculously so, and made from what had probably been at one point expensive offworld wood - now the scuff marks had reduced it to a pretty throwaway, but there were opalescent inlays of some kind that formed letters in a language that Orion didn't speak. There were no telescreens in this room, and instead photos hung from every available bit of wall of different bots and Shockwave in silly poses boasting sillier smiles. 

The closest photo was a candid, of Shockwave in a recent paintjob - maybe a few weeks ago? Or only slightly older than that - close to the camera and waving, most of the shot obscured by his face. Over his shoulder though, a blurry red bot had his arm drawn back as though about to throw something, though he was too smudged for Orion to be able to see what. A few other candids similar to it hung around this one, with the blurry red bot hidden in the background of all of them.

"I've been trying to catalog all of the current residents of the region of Nyon I grew up in," the voice at the officer's elbow startled him out of his thought and he looked down to Senator Shockwave at his elbow, swiping the last of the grease from his cheek. "I seem to have earned this one's displeasure though - can't even get his name when I go to visit, he just throws bits of scrap at me and calls me something rude."

Orion frowned, looking back at the photo. "Nyonian police shouldn't be letting their citizens throw garbage at visiting senators. How has he continued to get away with it?"

Shockwave cocked a brow at him, and suddenly he could feel displeasure in that face despite the neutral expression. "Quite the contrary, I enjoy our little game of ferro-cat and turbomouse. He's probably only a couple of decades old, too, but he's a fast one. One of these days I'll manage to pin him down and get a real photo with him, but for now these will do." 

Hooking the rag over his shoulder, he gestured at Orion. "Let's go sit down; I need your help with that bill I'm arguing on the senate floor right now. You would've thought some of the other senators had never spoken to a space able flier before, the way some of them propose to deal with passport laws." He rolled his optics, catching Chartreuse at the scruff again for a quick scratch. "They don't seem to understand how much power is actually needed to break the atmosphere."

Orion took one last look at the photo, then followed the senator around the recliner to the couch, a mismatched monster of a piece of furniture covered in mail patches with swirling cyberflora dyed into patches of paisley. Shockwave nearly threw himself down onto it and Orion settled at the other corner, already reading the new proposed passport bill that the senate was considering for spaceflight. 

Past his HUD, he could see the senator stroking Chachki in long delicate movements - how had she managed to sneak past him? - and his eyes lingered on the minute movements of those graceful white hands. The joints were obviously built for more careful work than his, and the way they moved almost broke Orion's focus from the boring jargon of the senate as he watched. Only for a moment, he imagined how they might feel in his own palm, black paint scuffed from working on his regulation issued blaster.

Exventing and snapping his HUD shut with a startle at that image, Orion leaned forward and pulled out a datapad on which to write notes. "Alright, so let me explain first how this would be impossible to enforce."


End file.
